Luigi's Scary Night
by calliarcale
Summary: A scary night for Luigi; written for my daughter, bayoboo. ;-)


It was a dark and stormy night in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Luigi was afraid and hiding under his covers. He did not like thunderstorms. They reminded him too much of ghosts, and he had had entirely enough of them, thank you very much. He wanted to check on his brother, just to reassure himself that his brother was all right, but he knew he was supposed to be sleeping right now, and he didn't want to wake Mario. Besides, it was much too scary out there.

Mario always looked so peaceful when he slept. Luigi wished he could sleep like Mario. But instead, all he could hear was rumbling and crashing and booming, and every few seconds the room was brilliantly lit by lightning flashes. The change from bright to dark was always too sudden for his eyes to adjust, and so Luigi couldn't see anything much. Just silhouettes, and they were terrifying.

Take that one, for instance. It looked like a demon spreading its wings in front of the window, ready to attack, and the fact that he knew it was really just a wing chair in front of a lamp didn't really help. And then there was the one that looked like a Koopa, laughing at him, except of course it was just an ottoman. Or . . . take that one. That one was *really* scary. He didn't even want to *think* about it, but he couldn't stop himself. It was the wardrobe, with a potted plant on top, but when the lightning flashed it looked exactly like . . . like . . . .

Oh no. No!

The wardrobe was on the other side of the room, wasn't it? Yes, yes of course it was. And that meant this might really be . . .

No! Not him!

Luigi didn't even scream. He wished he could be proud of that, but the truth is he was too scared to scream.

How was he here? It wasn't possible! This was their own home! It wasn't even fair!

Luigi ducked back under the covers and tried very very hard to be quiet.

There was another rumble, long and rolling. He couldn't see if it was really HIM out there, waiting to steal away Mario once again, and then Luigi, but deep inside he was very sure it was. How many more of his friends had already been taken, locked away in paintings? And here he was, in bed, in his pajamas, weaponless and alone. He was nothing more than a tiny ant, with no one to help, about to be squashed.

Or was he alone? His brother was in the upper bunk, snoring away, right? Normally, he'd be able to tell, but with all the thunder, it was impossible to hear. He peeked carefully out of the covers at the upper bunk, hoping to see the bunk sagging under Mario's weight, but of course the bunk never sagged anyway, so that was a total waste of effort.

There was another flash, and he hid again, whimpering.

Then he felt something. It was cold and it was pressed against his foot, and he couldn't stop himself as he yelped out in terror. He pulled his foot back under the covers and sat shivering.

But there was a new sound. Something he hadn't heard before in all this scary flashing and crashing. It sounded very much like . . .

"Polterpup?" Luigi sat up. Suddenly he felt much braver, and he pulled the covers back. There he was, his loyal companion, tongue lolling out the side, panting with a look of absolute glee. There was something on the bed under his mouth. Luigi looked at it carefully.

It flashed right in his eyes.

The sudden flash startled Luigi right out of his fear and he sat bolt upright, blinking and rubbing his eyes. After a few seconds, he was able to see again. The object was a flashlight, and it was blinking on and off at random intervals. He picked it up, gave it a few shakes, and the beam steadied.

"Oh nooooo," he said, remembering what he'd seen earlier, and he swept the beam around the room.

The wing chair and lamp were just a wing chair and lamp, not a demon. The ottoman was an ottoman, not a Koopa. And the wardrobe . . . wait a second. That really *was* the wardrobe! He facepalmed - they had moved the wardrobe just yesterday. It wasn't . . . him.

So if the lightning was really a malfunctioning flashlight that Polterpup was playing with, what was the thunder?

Another rumble shook the room. Now fully awake, Luigi couldn't help it - he started laughing.

It was Mario's snoring all along.

There was no thunder; it wasn't a stormy night at all, and there were no monsters in the bedroom. Luigi scratched Polterpup under the chin, then switched off the flashlight, and went to sleep.


End file.
